March 2004
Holy War

A Shi'a man cries during a mourning observance for those killed in dual attacks on Shi'ites in Karbala and Baghdad

"What is happening to our country? These were just innocent people who came here to pray."

an unidentified iraqi woman near Baghdad's Kadhim shrine after a deadly bombing, as quoted in The Washinton Post

On Ashura, the holiest day of the year for Shi'ite Muslims, nearly 180 worshippers are massacred in a series of coordinated car and suicide bomb attacks at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala. It is one of the deadliest days since Saddam Hussein was toppled. U.S. officials blame the March 2 attacks on Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has links to al-Qaeda, though one of his field commanders is later fingered as the mastermind. Shi'ite religious leaders blame the U.S. for allowing the horrific attacks to take place.